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nürnburg

Nine days, two countries, and six cities later, here I sit on my way to my seventh city, Vienna. So far I have visited Nürnberg, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Berlin, Münich, and Salzburg. Each one has been amazing, an exciting adventure. I bought a global EuroRail pass that I have been using all break, it has been working wonderfully. I have the Rail planner app that without wifi tells me train times that do not require reservations. So, for all of these trips thus far, I have just hopped on a the trains and searched for an open seat! Most trains do have open seats, only once so far have I had to sit in the ally way between the different train compartments.
I will try to talk about each individually because they are all such special, treasured places to me. This post I will talk about Nürnberg, Germany.
I finished finals on Tuesday and I left Wednesday morning around 4:30am. After three stops in various cities, I made it to Nürnberg. I met with my friend Lacye around 6pm and we headed towards our hostel. We stayed at the Five Reasons, which was a beautiful hostel right next to the city’s old wall. The hostel was very clean and spacious, I loved it! I immediately met a girl named Megan. Later, as Lacye and I walked through the Christmas markets, we happened to bump into Megan yet again! Before coming to Germany I didn’t know what to expect from Germany or even the Christmas markets. Before coming to Europe I had been to Chicago’s international Christmas markets, which I always loved, but I was not prepared for the wonder and beauty of Germany’s markets! The markets were magical. Christmas music, sweet smells, bright lights and beautiful colors, the excitement of Christmas in the air, the families wandering about, the sweet little trinkets and gifts being sold, all of this contributed to the magical feel of the area. I felt like a child again as I walked through the beautifully lit aisles. While at the markets we again saw our new friend Megan who was with another traveler Bernadette, from Australia. We had a wonderful time with our new friends, we even visited the largest punch bowl in the world, which happens to be in Nürnberg. After a fun night of warm conversations we headed to a small local café where Lacye and I chatted over hot coco. The next morning we decided to head to the Nürnberg rally site on the city outskirts. The rally site is the area where Hitler and the Nazis would meet and talk about strategy and plans. It was an eerie building and very sad to walk through. I had an audio guide tour to lead my way through the building. There was a lot of information on the tour that I had never heard before and it was interesting and sad reading about the events that took place in the building that I stood in. After a few hours in the building we walked around the back of the ginormous structure and headed to the outdoor rally site, whenever you see Hitler giving a speech outside in front of thousands, it was here. I stood in the exact spot that Hitler stood when he invoked so much hate in peoples hearts, I stood in the spot where he said mere words, but words that would lead to the death of over 11 million people. It was not a pleasant moment, it was surreal actually. As I looked from that dreadful spot, I stood where Hitler once saw thousands of people, soldiers, easily manipulated pawns, yet what did I see when I stood in that very spot? I saw soccer fields, I saw football fields, and tennis courts. I could not imagine playing sports in such a space.
After the rally site, we headed back to the city. We explored various areas of the adorable city, found an adorable bridge and walked to the city’s castle which had a gorgeous city view. We then went back to Nürnberg’s Kinderweihnacht or Christmas markets! We found a beautiful region with a sweet little carousel. After a wonderful night out in Nürnberg we headed to bed. The next day? Frankfurt and Heidelberg!
Stay true, live justly, and always travel on. Peace and love.